This Film is not yet Rated.

[thejoshualee]

Just watched the documentary "This Film is not yet Rated" and found it very interesting.

I never thought much about the rating system before. I grew up in a pretty religious/conservative household and my parents acted as my raters. There were a few PG-13 movies I never saw and many a R that I did. It was about context with them. They always believed that some rating body wasn't going to decide what they let their kids watch.

There was a rating that was completely off limits for me and my parents: NC-17. That was no mans land. It was the realm of porn and filth and human depravity. Even if my parents wanted to they would be hard pressed to watch one. The only NC-17 movie I remember being advertised growing up was Showgirls, which was filth human depravity and near porn. Anyways....

I enjoy foreign films and independent films and documentaries more so than most standard Hollywood stuff, but I'd never watch a film with the NC-17 brand on it. It was just.... I don't know. I don't want to watch filth and depravity and NC-17 equaled that.

I hate to say that something "opened my eyes" because it implies that my eyes were shut on the matter, but this film opened my eyes.

1. The standards that give a film a rating are not established. What one film gets away with another will not.
2. Many movies rated "R" have the same, if not more sex and violence than the NC-17ers.
3. Sex between homosexual partners are almost always given a harsher rating than sex between heterosexual partners.
4. The rating board is a small group of parents (though many of their kids are older than 18). It's crazy to think such a small group of people decide what's considered decent.
5. This film shows many scenes that got deleted from NC-17 films to make them rated R. I was shocked that (A)- I'd seen the same things from several R rated movies (B)-I'd seen far more in foreign films not submitted to the rating standards of the MPRA. (C)- I'd seen far more in original series on HBO or Showtime, and not the ones that run after midnight. The Sopranos or Rome would get an NC-17 rating I have no doubt.

Now, I don't agree with all the points made in this movie. They imply that violence in movies has a harsher effect on kids than sex does. I've never seen any academic studies that suggest that at all. They also criticize companies for protecting and copyrighting their creations. I don't see why a company cannot protect their creations.

All in all I think "This film is not yet Rated" is an important film to watch. I don't know, and frankly don't care, if it will revolutionize the MPRA, but it changed my attitude about what ratings mean, what I choose to watch, and the taboo on the NC-17 rating.

[sir clinksalot]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

I've always had issues with the MPRA and I will definately be checking this out.

It goes back to the whole PG-13 rating. There is absolutely no reason a movie with fantasy violence such as Harry Potter should be in the same category as say the newest Die Hard movie.

The number of movies in the PG-13 category are too broad. There needs to be like a PG-16 or something for those types of moves.

But I'm like your parents TGEL, We are VERY selective of what our kids watch. They haven't seen ANYTHING rated R before. Most PG movies we find that we don't need to see them first. But when it comes to PG13, again, unless it's Harry Potter or Pirates or something we need to see it first, or at least know somebody personally that has seen it that knows our kids.

Like with The Simpsons movie. We all wanted to see it. But I wasn't sure. After talking to Fishbulb, who knows us and our kids, he let us know it was fine and nothing more than they had seen. So we went, and loved it. But I saw MANY other kids, MUCH younger than ours in that theatre, and it made me wonder if those parents had done the same kind of research we did.

I know I'm getting off-topic a bit, but I'm with you. No faceless body of people who probably have different moral convictions that I do is going to tell me what my kids should be allowed to see.

[flynnibus]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

I think the TV ratings system has some positives over the movie board in that they tell you what elements the show has.

[Tinkerbelle]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

I saw this a couple months ago, and I came away with simillar reaction.

However I'm going to come at this from the mommy view...

I am very strict about what my kids watch. I have a 13 yr old and an 8 yr old.
I preview just about everything that they see because I don't trust the rateing scale, I find in highly inaccurate for MY family....

I personaly have less issue with nudity in a movie than I do with violence.

yet the violent movies get lower ratings than movies with some nudity...that baffles me!

Language is another....I take it on a movie by movie basis, some it's apropriate for the situation, charactor, whatever...sometimes it's just to see how many times they can get F or whatever through....

I have found another resourse that I, as a parent, absolutly love

I use it for most movies, particuarly with my 13 yr old, because as she is getting older it's just not feasable for me to preview everything, she wants to go to movies with friends, or watch things at their houses...so we use Common Sense Media.

I love it, it has every movie I have ever looked for and rates in on different scales, it tells you what the MPAA gave it. It also has red/yellow/green rateing system with ages listed with it.
in adddition to that it has parents and kids ratings.
it also gives a brief synopsis, so that parents have an understanding of the movie even if they havn't seen it.
AND
my favorite aspect, it has a system for everything individualy.
It rates violence, sexual content, language, and message, such as Commercialism, social behavior, and drug/alcohol use.

so each parent is informed enough to make the decision for THEIR family, based on their own beliefs and values.

I'm linking the POTC, review since we have all seen it, and you can see for yourselves how this would (or would not) work for your family.

I rarely go by their ratings, but I love the detailed information.

like I said, nudity, mild sexuality and mild language don't bother me in movies, but Violence is my red flag.

See what you think for yourselves, but this is, as a parent, my favorite resourse...

the MPAA bugs me for so many different reasons, this gives me the tools I need to be informed for my children.

and again, I take Commons sense media with a grain of salt as well, but I like that it gives me the info I need. their rateings mean little to me, it's just someone elses opinion, but the information helps me decide.

(please keep in mind I chose this particular movie for a reason, RUM, obvious marketing (but hell we all love disney) some interesting charactors ...I picked a movie that some would find objectionable, but most are ok with. it gives you a pretty clear view. )



Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl


in addition to movies they rate websites, books, TV, video games, etc.

[knittingknerd]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

I saw this movie when it came out and I think I even posted it on my blog that it's one of the scariest movies out there because as a writer, as a person who plans to see my stuff on the big screen.... I write for the ratings. But that said it's insane that as a woman, as a woman with a sister and a mother look at how much violence against women gets past the ratings board. And Kevin Smith said that if there is violence against women or children that should totally change the rating. I should re-watch the movie because it really is shocking and unfair.

And I have more issues with violence than sex. I don't watch movies like "Saw" or movies of that genre (aren't they called something specific like violence... shoot I forgot!) because it's an insane amount of violence, "Captivity" was violence against women as was "Hostel 2," I'm sorry I don't need to see that. I think that totally desensitizes the population and it's scary that this type of movie is targeted towards teenagers. Now compare "Hostel 2" to "American Pie 2" which has a lot of playful sex, but both were rated R. One has a head rolling on the floor and the other had super glue.

[Twist_of_Fate]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

I think the TV ratings system has some positives over the movie board in that they tell you what elements the show has.

The movie board almost always does this as well. It's included in the box that features the rating attached to a preview and in most online descriptions of the movie if it goes by too fast in a preview.

As for the violence versus sex issue, just as a point of reference, the original Saw was a superb horror movie that didn't exactly rely on pure gore. Sure, there were some gross parts, but the same can be said of LOTS of classic horror movies. Films like Hostel and Captivity and things of those nature (including Saw 2 and Saw 3) seem to be trying to get away with as much as humanly possible under the ratings system. Saw 3 seemed like a lot of the gore was for the simple fact that they could. The story behind the film could have been carried out with substantially less gore, especially explicitly depicted violence.

Although the Production Code of Classical Hollywood was a joke, it certainly went a long way in preventing the explicit depiction of a lot of the stuff that people get away with now.

[filmfreak11]

Re: This Film is not yet Rated.

MPRA or MPAA??